After an emotional qualifying session on Friday at Monza that saw Gabriel Bortoleto clinch the F3 drivers’ title as five others were disqualified, Saturday’s sprint race brought a front-row lockout for MP Motorsport. Franco Colapinto converted pole position to victory after a battle with teammate Mari Boya, who crossed the line third behind a surging Bortoleto.

By Daniele Spadi

Thanks to an electric getaway, Boya shot up to the lead as Colapinto settled for second. Though an opening-lap incident involving Paul Aron, Jonny Edgar, Pepe Martí and Caio Collet brought out the safety car shortly after, the Spaniard held off his teammate at the restart and throughout the first half of the race.

Williams academy driver Colapinto was ready to fight, though, battling with Boya at the midpoint of the 18-lap race and making the move stick on lap 10.

Colapinto began to break away from the field as Boya had to defend against the drivers behind, especially Bortoleto, who showed newfound aggression while carving through the field from eighth on the grid. The Brazilian finally overtook Boya into the Variante della Roggia on the final lap of the race, leaving Boya to fend off Jenzer’s Taylor Barnard for the rest of the lap.

A win for the record books

Colapinto replicated his success in the Monza sprint race last year, and with his fourth FIA F3 win, he joined Frederik Vesti, Jack Doohan, Dennis Hauger and Zak O’Sullivan as the driver with the joint most wins in championship history.

“It was not like last year, [when] I was just in front for the whole race,” Colapinto said. “I had a really bad start, actually. I haven’t had any real bad starts like this during the year. Today, the clutch configuration was not correct, and I just had a really, really poor launch.”

However, he only dropped to second, and the pace he had throughout the rest of the race was enough for him to retake the lead and come out victorious.

“The car was amazing. We were really fast. The last few laps that I stayed in front with no DRS, I was just pushing and I could open a gap. I think we had a really good pace even though I had clean air, no slipstream, no DRS. And even then, I showed that I could go forward.”

Colapinto and Boya’s double podium earned MP Motorsport a combined 18 points, lifting the Dutch team to nine points behind Hitech and 14 behind Campos with a maximum of 59 per team still on offer in the feature race.

“This one was actually quite nice. Of course, fighting with a teammate and having a lot of respect for each other, it was I think really nice to see, also on the TV!” he said.

“We were just pushing forward. When someone had a clear opportunity, we were trying an overtake, but it was never taking any risks, and I think the team really appreciated that. We scored really, really good points for the teams’ championship.”

Boya’s first F3 podium

After a tough season with just three prior points finishes, Boya took his maiden F3 podium at Monza, a track where he also scored a double victory in June as part of his parallel Eurocup-3 campaign.

Boya did not have the best start to this weekend as he found the wall at the final corner in the closing stages of free practice on Friday, but the podium came at a perfect time for Boya, who is also looking to find a place on the 2024 F3 grid.

“I think we deserved it for a long time and I’m happy,” he said after the race. “Since all the race I have been super fast in all the track, but on Friday I crashed in free practice in the last corner coming quite fast, and I lost a lot of confidence in there.

“During all the race, I was pulling away, I will say, in all the track, but [at Parabolica] I was losing a lot. For me, I think it’s the most important corner in the whole track because then you have the long straight with the DRS and the main opportunity point to overtake.”

Boya conceded that he likely lost both positions by getting worse exits from Parabolica than his rivals, but he also knew he had different objectives in the race.

“Leading for many laps, I was thinking a bit more – but always, as Franco said, on the clean side battling with the team. I knew he was battling for second place in the championship, and it’s much more than for what I was battling. I think we were really clean,” he said.

“I have been many times in the front in free practice and qualifying, but always I was making mistakes of track limits or being in a bad position on the track. So confidence I had, but I just needed to do it in a race.”

Header photo credit: MP Motorsport